If you watched the video about merging and rasterizing layers, you remember I said…use those commands very sparingly.…That's even more true about the next command I'm going to talk about.…That's the Flatten command.…Okay, So, I'm going to go ahead and show you how to use the Flatten command, but…I want to tell you in advance that after you'll see me do that,…I'm going to recommend that you don't actually ever use this command from the Layers panel.…I want to teach you how it works, but then show you how to use the Flatten…command as part of another feature as saving out a file.…You'll see why that makes sense later on.…If you take a look at the Layers panel here, you see I've got the stack of layers.…

The Flatten command basically says take all the visible layers that are…turned on and squish them all into a single layer and delete all the layers…that are turned off.…So, what you're going to end up with is a single background layer.…So, rather than talking about it, let's just do it.…Under the Layers panel, there is the flyout menu for the Layers panel.…

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Author

Released

4/30/2010

In Photoshop CS5 Essential Training, author Michael Ninness demonstrates how to produce the highest quality images with fantastic detail in the shortest amount of time, using a combination of Photoshop CS5, Adobe Bridge, and Camera Raw. This course shows the most efficient ways to perform common editing tasks, including noise reduction, shadow and highlight detail recovery, retouching, and combining multiple images. Along the way, Michael shares the secrets of non-destructive editing, utilizing and mastering Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw, layers, adjustment layers, blending modes, layer masks, and much more. Exercise files are included with the course.